Pamela Rutledge: Video games, Problem Solving and Self-Efficacy

Presentation from 2012 APA National Convention Symposium on the Positive Psychology of Video Gameplay as part of a panel on Innovations for ADHD: Video Games and Digital Media for Improving Academic and Executive Skills

This chart shows the balance between the challenge of a task on the left and the person’s skills across the bottom. To remain in the FLOW zone, challenge and skill must constantly adjust to one another.

This chart shows the balance between the challenge of a task on the left and the person’s skills across the bottom. To remain in the FLOW zone, challenge and skill must constantly adjust to one another.

Social technologies have given people unprecedented control over their lives. We act and, because we are linked in real time, we see the actions others take and we can interact with them. Individual actions inspire group actions; groups inspire individuals. The most exciting thing is that we are training new generations to believe they can act; to believe that an individual can make a difference. It changes everyone’s expectations about their ability— and their responsibility—to contribute.